Lifemate
by Arciere
Summary: Sacha is looking for someone, and sitting on the rooftops as the rain falls around him, he finally finds the one he's been searching for.


Cold.

It was all he knew now, a dull, colorless monotony that he continued to endure. Life held no meaning, no real joy for someone who couldn't feel anything; for someone who only existed because of honor and a will honed in the torments of hell.

Sacha Kael had endured centuries, fighting the beast inside him for the small hope that he would be freed from his barren prison. That hope was what he clinged to when the beast whispered temptation. When he promised a rush of emotion and excitement. Sacha wanted nothing more than to feel again. To know there was _something_ in this world besides the cold that had become his life. He distantly remembered a couple of centuries in the beginning where he could see color and feel, but he often questioned their reality. Was it possible that there was something in this wasteland?

He shifted his position on the rooftop. The rain fell around him, but the chill seeping into his clothes could never be as cold as what he endured. The droplets plastered his long, dark hair against his muscled shoulders, pressed his clothes to his skin like a sheath. But it was disregarded. The sensation was pushed away as he focused on his target.

The Prince of the Carpathian people had asked him to find someone. A woman who was thought to possess psychic abilities, though it was unknown what they were. She was being hunted by the humans that thought themselves 'heroes' for slaying the vampire, though they were often puppets for those they hunted. The woman had been caught somehow, and was wanted. If she was psychic, it was possible that she had a lifemate.

_Lifemate_, he thought, taking a moment to wrap the word around his heart as he thought of what it would be like to be lucky enough to have one. For centuries he had endured the cold darkness. She would bring him light, life. Something real and tangible when he had been grasping at fragments. Warmth to counter the cold. He wanted to hold her, to lose himself in her and make her feel just as much sensation as she would make him. He wanted to protect her, possess her.

Sacha released his senses into the night. It called to him, but again, he focused on his task. He searched for someone with a different brain pattern, something to set her apart from the others. He looked for strength, courage, maybe even fear. She knew she was hunted. She was clever, running, but keeping low. It had been a challenge tracking her, but no one was better than him. No one could outsmart him. He was confident that he would catch her.

And it was easy to recognize her when his thoughts pushed around hers. She shielded her mind, naturally, as if she had been born with the gift. He was tempted to push, to enter without invitation, but he refrained, instead hovering overhead as he studied her from afar. His body was still on the rooftop, but he was there, watching her as she walked.

She wasn't suspicious, walking with her head held up, but not as high as it would have been normally. She flitted around the sidewalk, her body in constant motion, constant awareness, even though she never once looked over her shoulder. The black umbrella helped to shield her, and she used it to her advantage as she made her way up the street. Her wealth of chocolate hair cascaded down her back, occasionally fluttering in the wind. And her sharp, blue eyes watched her surroundings.

Sacha found himself respecting her. It was then that he realized that he could tell her hair was chocolate in color. Then that he could see her eyes were a brilliant shade of cerulean that captivated him. And then he realized that the beast in him wanted to claim her, to have her under him while he took her beyond pleasure into a world of sensations that they had never dreamed of. He could feel the physical signs of attraction, knew that the gods had created her for him. He sent a small thanks to whoever resided up there, and shifted to mist droplets, easily blending into the rain that fell from the sky.

_Lifemate_, he whispered, wrapping the word, and her image, around his heart as a brand, a promise that he would keep them and cherish them for all time.

**Thanks to all my fantastic readers, I hope I please you all. Again I would like to tell you all about Muhnemma, my wonderful beta, who always helps me make my writing better. She is such an angel. Please review and tell me what you think about Sacha and his new lifemate. I also wonder if perhaps I should continue this line with a complete story... So tell me what you think, won't you?**

**-Arciere**


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